1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of printing a photo picture using a thermal printer, and more particularly, to a method for forming a matte finish on a photo picture using a thermal printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Two typical finishes for conventional film photographs are a glossy finish and a matte finish. Technology has developed to an extent where digital pictures taken by a digital camera can be printed using a thermal printer for a reasonable cost. While a glossy finish can be easily realized by forming a uniform over coating layer on top of the picture after colored dye is printed, a matte finish cannot be made this way. A matte finish is typically only achievable using photo processing techniques developed for conventional film photographs.
Consider a conventional film photograph 10 as shown in FIG. 1. A piece of photographic paper 12 has a developed image that is covered by a protective over coating 14. The over coating 14 is textured with tiny rounded protuberances (size exaggerated in FIG. 1). The effect is one that is familiar to anyone who has ever looked at a photograph having a matte finish. Incident light is reflected in such a way that the image on the paper 12 appears non-glossy-evenly reflecting illuminating light.
Currently, there is no suitable way of giving a digital photograph printed with a thermal printer a matte finish. This is a shortcoming of the present state of the art as more and more photographers are printing their own digital pictures without going to a third party photo developer.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a method for generating a matte finish on a photo picture using a thermal printer.
Briefly summarized, the claimed invention includes using a thermal printhead to heat different areas of an overcoating dye frame of an ink ribbon by at least two distinct time periods to form a matte finish pattern of disposed overcoating on a photo picture. The two distinct time periods being a first time period and a second time period. The matte finish pattern comprising a two-dimensional array of cells wherein each cell is heated by either the first time period or the second time period.
According to the claimed invention, the first time period is longer than the second time period, and the first time period causes the overcoating to be disposed on the photo picture in a layer that is thicker than a layer of overcoating disposed by the second time period.
It is an advantage of the claimed invention that the overcoating is disposed according to the two distinct time periods to give the photo picture a matte finish.
It is a further advantage of the claimed invention that a photographer can print a digital photograph having a matte finish, without requiring a third party photo developer.
These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.